In Labor!

I'm at the hospital in labor! Andrew and I drove through the 16 inches of snow to make our appointment at 7:30pm for me to be induced. They checked us in, got us set up in a labor and delivery room, and used some tablets at 8pm to start thinning my cervix. I received a second dose around midnight, and around 2:30am, I woke up with contractions!

The contractions were immediately severe, and they were only 45 seconds apart. I went to the bathroom to pee, and I had two by the time I finished. I went back to my hospital bed, trying to decide if I was supposed to wait for a while or not. After a couple more that were even more painful, I decided I couldn't handle them on my own. I woke up Andrew. Andrew got the nurse, and she reviewed the contraction monitor. My contractions were so close together, I barely got a break from one when the next would start. She told me that can be one of the side effects from the tablets.



She started an IV (eeeieii!) to try to space out the contractions. She gave it 15 minutes, but the contractions got even worse. I literally was shaking with pain because there was no break from them. She checked my cervix, and I was dilated to 4cm. She called the anesthesiologist, and he made it to my room within 10 minutes. Those 10 minutes felt like forever since I had at least that many contractions. I started to cry. When he arrived, he asked me if my contractions started out that severe, and I said, "Pretty much."

The nurse injected me with a pain medication to help for the epidural. It immediately made me dizzy and sleepy, and I could no longer keep my eyes open. Getting the epidural didn't hurt at all, and it helped almost immediately. I kept telling the anesthesiologist, "Thank you so much."

Labor's been super easy ever since. I'm now dilated almost 7cm, and all I've been doing is napping and relaxing. Of course, it's not easy being hooked up to so many things. I have the IV because I'm not allowed to eat or drink. I have the epidural in my back, and a cathader as well. On my stomach, I have a fetal monitor and a contraction monitor. On my left hand, I have a pulse reader, and on my right arm, I have a blood pressure cuff. Also, even though the baby's pulse is fine (in the 120s), it's lower than it was, so she gave me an oxygen mask to wear. As she put it, "The baby's getting tired from the medication, too."

My doctor is going to arrive in about an hour to break my water. From there, I'm hoping things will speed along, and hopefully, I'll have a baby soon!



I'm getting a little nervous again, but definitely more excited than anything. I'm wishing my mom was here, though, to tell me everything's going well and will be fine. She took the day off today, so hopefully she'll be here soon to help. Delivery will just be me and Andrew, of course. I think we'll take a couple of hours to ourselves to marvel at our little wonder, but then we'll see our visitors and show off our bundle of joy. Just a few more hours!